Brave new world • A radical vision for British agriculture• Restoring the Celtic Rainforest• Planning for a better food future

Fieldfare The RSPB’s land use policy newsletter

Spring 2019

Fieldfare Spring 20192

Welcome

Brexit and beyond

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The challenge ahead: producing food that restores, not degrades, nature.

In this context, you may expect this edition to be dominated by Brexit, and certainly, a potential ‘no deal’ outcome would have a wide range of negative environmental impacts. In this respect, farming and nature have a common cause, given the huge impact that ‘no deal’ would have on agriculture in the UK. Whatever the outcome, we will continue to make the case for close collaboration with the EU on the environment for the benefit of species and habitats.

This edition though looks beyond the current confusion, and toward some of the big debates and decisions that will dominate land use policy for the next 10 years and more, regardless of the Brexit outcome.

First amongst these is climate change. Farming and land use are increasingly at the centre of the debate on how to adapt to and mitigate climate change, and will be central to efforts to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. My colleague Jim Densham from RSPB Scotland highlights this in an article on how farming can support a net zero emissions target in Scotland, and the RSPB’s Senior Policy Officer Olly Watts highlights the need to start with nature based solutions. These are win-wins for restoring wildlife, and beating climate

use strategies for nature and food production. And it is heartening to see examples of the RSPB collaborating to save nature with farmers and others in Northern Ireland at Lough Beg, and through efforts to restore the Celtic Rainforest in Wales.

What these stories all convey is a need for action. In this context, seemingly never-ending Brexit inertia will start to become a real impediment to efforts to turn around wildlife declines. The delays to the Agriculture Bill at Westminster are a topical case in point. The failure of our politics has been a running theme in the media recently. For nature’s sake, it is not something that can be allowed to continue.

Mike Clarke, Chief Executive

change, such as protecting and restoring carbon rich habitats including woodland and peatland.

Another key challenge for the 21st century will be how to produce food in a way that restores, not degrades nature. The opinion piece in this edition is from Caroline Lucas MP, based on the radical new vision for British agriculture that she set out at this year’s Oxford Farming Conference. A transition to a more sustainable future for food will need action from all of us, and Pat Thompson writes about how we can all make a contribution by eating less, but better, meat. It cannot all be left to individual choices, though – Government must also play a role, and the upcoming National Food Strategy for England will be judged on whether it tackles some of these hard choices.

Finally, how we secure more sustainable land management will be a central task for reformed agriculture policies in the future. In this edition, Alice Groom covers innovations in land management scheme design, such as results-based payments, and embedding the natural capital approach. We highlight new science by the RSPB on agri-environment schemes in Wales and optimum land

As I write, Brexit continues to consume the country. When this edition of Fieldfare is published, we may well have left the European Union, but the shape of that relationship is still impossible to predict.

Fieldfare Spring 2019 3

Three-compartment model delivers for wildlifeHow to reconcile the often-competing interests of conserving wildlife with feeding the world?A recent joint study between the RSPB and the University of Cambridge has attempted to answer this question for two regions of southern England: The Fens and Salisbury Plain.

In both regions, a ‘three-compartment’ land-use strategy maximised bird populations whilst maintaining regional food production.

Because bird species tend to be most abundant either in the absence of farming (eg on nature reserves) or when farming is relatively low-yielding, their populations are maximised when large areas of land are managed principally for conservation.

To achieve this whilst maintaining overall food production (and so avoiding additional food imports from overseas), sustainable high-yield farming is necessary across a significant part of the landscape.

Under our preferred three-

must, among other things, be able to sustain itself without degrading the soil or local water courses.

Defining and implementing ‘maximum sustainable yield’ remains an important challenge. The study will shortly be published in the journal Conservation Biology.

For more information contact Tom Finch: tom.finch@rspb.org.uk

compartment model:

1. High-yield farming ‘spares’ land to be managed primarily for conservation, either as

2. Nature reserves or

3. Low-yielding, wildlife-friendly farming.

The challenge, as ever, is how to apply this model in the real-world.

High-yield farming won’t automatically spare land for conservation, and

Research news

A recently published article (MacDon-ald et al., 2019) reports on a monitor-ing programme of Welsh agri-environ-ment schemes (AES) carried out between 2009 and 2012.

An RSPB-led NGO partnership surveyed a range of wildlife of conservation importance including arable plants, grassland fungi, six bat species, three butterfly species, five bird species as well as water voles and brown hares. It is rare for moni-toring programmes to be so compre-hensive.

Few differences were observed between AES and non-AES farms and fields, and were mostly observed in

species that use arable habitats.

There is a much greater contrast between AES and non-AES manage-ment on arable land, so that the differences in the dependent wildlife are clearer.

However, arable land is rare in Wales, and many AES prescriptions there focused on managing existing natural and semi-natural habitats.

The experience from this monitoring programme, and those elsewhere, indicate that agri-environment schemes are most likely to be successful when they are ecologically and geographically focused, and so

Design and focus crucial for resultsthe mixed results of a national scheme that had only broad goals is not unusual.

The results are especially relevant in the context of Brexit, and will inform both AES and monitoring design.

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.13329

For more information contact Michael Macdonald: michael.macdonald@rspb.org.uk

Applying the three-compartment model to farms to benefit wildlife.

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Fieldfare Spring 20194

Feature

What is a natural capital approach?

Natural capital is the stock of living and non-living assets, including soils, freshwater, forests, atmosphere, oceans, species and the natural processes that underpin their functioning.

The extent, condition, and location of these assets determines the flow of goods and services to people including clean water, clean air and a habitable climate. Some assets such as coal, oil or gas are not renewable, if we use them now, they are not available to future generations. Whereas other assets, such as wildlife, are renewable. If we ensure they are carefully-managed and protected, they can continue to provide benefits for free!

However, we know that we have not been managing and protecting natural capital and so even renewable assets, like wildlife and habitats, are being lost. The natural capital approach provides a means to address this

ongoing decline, by providing a framework that better reflects the value of nature in decision-making. The natural capital approach focuses on the condition of stocks of natural assets, and the ongoing cost to help maintain, enhance and restore asset condition to ensure current and future generations can continue to derive value from the natural world. But how do we translate this into public policy?

According to Dieter Helm the Chair of the Natural Capital Committee we need to embed three key principles:

1. Public money for public good – reforming government expenditure on agriculture and land management, to release funds to deliver environmental public goods (the elements of natural capital that are not provided by the market).

2. Polluter pays principle – putting in place regulatory standards to avoid pollution, but where it occurs

Terms like natural capital and ecosystem services can be vague and open to interpretation, but it’s undeniable that they are dominating mainstream environmental policy – the term natural capital appears over 100 times in Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan.

ensure that the public do not have to foot the bill.

3. Net gain – net gain recognises that development, including housing and infrastructure, will damage natural capital and provides a mechanism to not just compensate, but to help recover the natural environment through increasing the provision of habitat or ecological features.

All three of these elements are included within Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan (England only). The next step is to ensure they are developed and implemented not just in England, but across the UK to reverse decades of decline and help restore the natural environment over the next 25 years.

For more information contact Alice Groom: Alice.groom@rspb.org.uk

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Wildlife is a renewable asset that can provide free benefits if it is protected and carefully managed.

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In natural systems, time, weather and the natural lifespan of trees work to create a variety of different conditions within a forest, hosting rich wildlife communities. Sustainable management can recreate many of these conditions, increasing a woodland’s value to wildlife, whilst also producing useful wood products.

Managing woodlands for wildlife is now easier thanks to the Woodland Wildlife Toolkit, a new, web-based support tool for woodland managers, agents and advisers.

The Woodland Wildlife Toolkit is designed to help reverse declines for wildlife that depends on woodland. It also provides advice on how to manage woodland to benefit wildlife, in particular rare and declining

Under the pilot, farmers are paid for the environmental results they deliver, not for the management actions that they undertake, as is the case with existing schemes.

Potential benefits of this approach include; reduced bureaucracy, increased flexibility, empowered land managers and improved environmental delivery. The pilot has been undertaken in two study areas to test different results.

In Wensleydale, farmers were asked to deliver species-rich meadows and habitat for breeding wading birds. In Norfolk and Suffolk, farmers were asked to deliver winter bird food and pollen and nectar-rich habitat.

species. It enables users to access a wealth of ecological information and expertise from across the sector.

The Toolkit has been developed in partnership by the RSPB, Butterfly Conservation, Bat Conservation Trust, Plantlife, Woodland Trust, Forestry Commission, Natural England and the Sylva Foundation.

It brings together species data from more than 30 organisations, via a map-based search facility to find out which important wildlife is likely to be in or near your woodland site.

The toolkit makes management decisions easier, by relating these records to management advice factsheets, which have been written by expert ecologists. The factsheets

The final report is expected soon, but based on the initial findings Natural England is confident that this pilot provides a proof of concept. Results-based approaches could therefore have an important place in the future of environmental land management schemes across the UK; providing flexibility for farmers, whilst helping to recover the natural environment.

However, it is important to note that the pilot looked at just four results. As such, there is still plenty of work ahead to enable roll-out at a national scale. More work is needed to determine which environmental objectives the approach can be applied to, and how verification and control works when there are more

The right tools for the job

Results-based payments: are they the future?

Woodland is an important habitat that can bring many benefits, but how it is managed makes a big difference for wildlife.

In 2016, Natural England and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority were awarded EU funding to pilot a ‘Results based Agri-Environmental Scheme’.

provide a summary of key management actions, together with access to more detailed advice about the needs of particular species and groups.

The toolkit also includes advice on assessing the condition of woodland and management planning. There’s also a wealth of helpful guidance on everything from managing mixed woodland types, to the timing of management and how to create native woodland.

Find out how the Woodland Wildlife Toolkit could help to transform your woodland for wildlife by visiting:woodlandwildlifetoolkit.org.uk

than a handful of result indicators to assess. With the national pilot of the English Environmental land management system just two years away, we are keen to see Defra put in train the work necessary to test the full application of this approach.

For more information contact Alice Groom: Alice.groom@rspb.org.uk

Fieldfare Spring 20196

Feature

Scrapes, snakes and streamsWater sources are a crucial resource on farms. With the right management, wet habitats can provide some of the most wildlife-rich areas on farmland.

The RSPB has mapped prime nature sites across the UK, and discovered that they store carbon that, if released, would produce 1.96 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide – that’s the same as four years’ of our annual greenhouse gas emissions from the UK.

This carbon is stored in both soil and vegetation, with the bulk in the soil. And that’s just in the top 30 cm of soil – the deeper organic soils, particularly peat, will hold much more.

It’s well known that nature gives us many benefits that we largely take for granted. Carbon storage may well be the biggest of those benefits. Given the seriousness of the situation, and

Whether they are permanent features, such as ponds and streams, or temporary pools and scrapes, wet habitats provide feeding, breeding and drinking opportunities for a range of wildlife.

Valuable pollinators and beneficial insect predators often need aquatic habitats to complete their lifecycle.

The vast numbers of insects produced by wet habitats are also a crucial food source for bats and birds. Amphibians rely on ponds for breeding, and grass snakes are strongly associated with ponds as their diet consists of frogs, toads and newts.

Farm Wildlife is a partnership of nine leading wildlife organisations, brought together to provide a single source of best-practice management advice for farmland wildlife.

Our approach is founded on the provision of six key elements: • caring for existing habitats• well-managed boundaries• wet features• flower-rich habitats• seed-rich habitats• in-field measures

Combining these measures across a farm creates a mosaic of habitats across the landscape. By not just concentrating on the edges of fields there can be significant benefits for wildlife throughout the seasons and their lifecycles.

The importance of these small-scale features should not be underestimated when planning environmental delivery. For farmers who want to maximise the wildlife benefit of their efforts, the management of ponds, rivers and streams should be an important consideration for any plan.

The advice developed by Farm Wildlife can help with all of these – see farmwildlife.info/how-to-do-it/wet-features/

Nature-based solutions to climate changeIt goes without saying that our important biodiversity sites are great places for nature, but they can also help us with climate change.

because climate change affects nature itself, it’s good sense to look after our best places for wildlife.

Yet our mapping also shows that 66% of the UK’s carbon in our best nature sites is not protected by a nature conservation designation. Furthermore, those sites that are protected are often in poor ecological condition. This means that peatlands, for example, are rapidly losing their stored carbon, instead of actively removing it from the atmosphere.

The RSPB is seeking Government recognition of nature-based solutions to climate change. The carbon in our nature-rich areas needs to be recognised and protected. These

places need to be integrated into the new policies and mechanisms taking us forward, including the 25 Year Environment Plan and funding practical action through the Environmental Land Management Scheme.

This will provide a significant boost towards meeting our climate change targets and both nature and people will gain in other ways too from the improved health of our countryside.

For more information contact Olly Watts: olly.watts@rspb.org.uk

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Grass snakes hunt in ponds.

Fieldfare Spring 2019 7

News

Dame Glenys Stacey reviewThe Stacey review into farm inspection and regulation reported in December, and recommended a number of measures to allow government to gain oversight of the agricultural sector.

In particular it recommended to create a single government regulator for all farms and land management.

The review expects this single regulator to provide advice and support alongside enforcement action, with a mandate to improve farm practice. This would include oversight of financial support schemes, including the proposed Environment Land Management Scheme.

Whether or not a single regulator is created, the review stresses the importance of co-ordinating financial support with regulatory action – mentioning in particular the potential for additional funding to address legacy slurry storage gaps, and the possibility that persistent failures to meet baseline regulation could disqualify

farms from receiving public funds.

The review sees an important role for risk-based approaches and the co-ordination of inspections between agencies, to help improve regulation and reduce the number of farms facing multiple unrelated visits by different agencies.

There are clear benefits from achieving this, although conducting risk assessments will be complicated. The Review notes the lack of current evidence that successful inspections or membership of assurance schemes translate into improved compliance with other regulations. It is crucial therefore that if such an approach is adopted it is underpinned by a robust system of oversight and monitoring to ensure the desired outcomes are delivered.

For more information contact: J@ckRhodes.co.uk

Successful inspections improve compliance.

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It’s a balancing actHow farming can support a net-zero emission target in Scotland.

As the Climate Change Bill works its way through the Scottish Parliament the debate continues about the role of Scottish farming in meeting the Bill’s new emission reduction targets.

With climate change the greatest long-term threat to our precious wildlife, the need for a net-zero target to be achieved by 2050 at the very latest, and action to make it happen, is paramount.

Climate change is also a threat to Scotland’s ongoing agricultural production. In 2018 alone, farming in Scotland experienced extreme weather events, such as the Beast from the East and the summer drought. If farmers are to keep farming into the future, climate change must be halted, however it cannot be tackled without farmers’ support.

We believe that farming can and must do more than the 9% emission reduction by 2030 being asked of it by Government. Several recent reports have shown that farming can significantly reduce emissions whilst maintaining production levels.

Research also indicates that farmers can also use land to sequester more carbon – counting as negative emissions.

Analysis in the RSPB’s Balancing Act report demonstrates that there are many policies that the Scottish Government could start now. These policies could realise the untapped potential in farming for emission reductions and balance any remaining emissions through sequestration.

Farming organisations fear that a net-zero target would cause a contraction of the farming industry, especially Scotland’s red meat industry. We are also concerned with how change is managed, for example we want to ensure that cattle remain in High Nature Value farming areas to provide the habitats that farmland birds rely on.

There is an urgent need to tackle climate change, but to do so in a just and supportive way for the climate, wildlife and for farmers. We must start now.

For more information contact Jim Densham: jim.densham@rspb.org.uk

Fieldfare Spring 20198

News

Group action in Northern IrelandStakeholders representing a range of rural interests have come together to explore how a sustainable land management policy could work in practice in Northern Ireland.

A joint workshop held by the Rural Community Network and RSPB NI sought to demonstrate how a new system, based on public money for public goods, could work for farming. Meeting at the recently-opened Seamus Heaney HomePlace, attendees heard how a focus on the provision of public goods, through positive environmental land management has created many opportunities for the local community, whilst also rewarding farmers and benefitting nature.

The event looked at the example being set by a recently developed

group option of the funded Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) currently operating at Lough Beg.

Here, the RSPB has been working in partnership with landowners in the area, targeting around 500ha of wet grassland within the Lough Beg Area of Specific Scientific Interest. Within the scheme, farmers are paid for creating optimal conditions for breeding wading birds, such as lapwings, redshanks, snipe and curlews as well as rare plants such as the Irish lady’s tresses orchid. The positive environmental management of this landscape has also benefitted the local economy, through its contribution towards tourism. Effective partnership working demonstrates the quality and value of the Lough Beg landscape to visitors from all over the world.

Seamus Heaney’s deep connection with the land is apparent throughout his work. It is important that ongoing sustainable land management and maintenance is supported in landscapes like this in the time ahead.

The work being undertaken at Lough Beg demonstrates what a future agriculture policy for Northern Ireland could achieve. By focusing on the delivery of public goods across a landscape, we can support farmers to deliver a range of benefits to society in addition to food, whilst also contributing to the economic and social development of the area.

For more information, contact Philip Carson: philip.carson@rspb.org.uk

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500 hectares of wet grassland in Lough Beg has been targeted for work to help breeding wading birds.

Fieldfare Spring 2019 9

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Restoring the Celtic Rainforest

These wet and temperate forests are typically dominated by sessile oak, downy birch, ash and hazel. They’re in areas criss-crossed by tumbling streams and waterfalls and provide us with a host of benefits.

The so-called Celtic Rainforest provides homes for rare and wonderful wildlife, protection against flooding, improves our air and water quality and gives important social and economic benefits for local communities.

The open structure of the rainforests traditionally allowed mosses and liverworts to thrive, but the invasion of the common rhododendron plant (rhododendrom ponticum) has threatened the biodiversity of the woodlands.

Conifer planting and a lack of woodland management, including grazing, have also had an adverse effect. The decline of the woodlands has put stress on precious flora, especially lichens and tree lungwort. Birds, such as pied flycatchers, redstarts and wood warblers have also suffered and there has been a noticeable impact on mammals including lesser horseshoe bats, otters and dormice.

Almost £7.5 million is to be spent through a partnership project to restore this iconic Welsh habitat. Non-native species will be eradicated, whilst woodland management plans will be produced and grazing demonstration sites established.

The project also aims to raise awareness of the natural and cultural value of the woodlands within local communities.

Work is underway in Wales to restore an endangered section of our countryside – the Celtic Rainforest.

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Work is underway to restore the Celtic rainforest in Wales.

The project is a partnership involving Snowdonia National Park Authority, RSPB Cymru, Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Water/ D∑r Cymru, the Woodland Trust and the National Trust. It will work across five Special Areas for Conservation and cover more than 65 percent of the Celtic Rainforests in Wales.

The project will run until June 2025 and the Welsh Government has guaranteed funding will continue regardless of the UK’s relationship with the EU after Brexit

For more information,contact Rhys Evans: rhys.evans@rspb.org.uk

10

Opinion:

A radical new vision for British agricultureCaroline Lucas, MP, outlines her views on the future for farming.

I am aware of the wisdom of the farming community about nature and land, but in spite of the myriad individual examples of good practice, it remains a fact that our agri-industrial food system is in crisis – too often favouring consolidation in order to improve competitiveness at the expense of human health, ecology and farmer livelihoods.

Instead we need an alternative model, based on agro-ecological principles:

A sustainable, resilient, nature-friendly food system, which restores rather than undermines biodiversity, and which makes a significant contribution to a zero-carbon world.

We need a food system that supports fair trade and good livelihoods for farmers and farm workers, which upholds high animal welfare standards, and which enables everyone to access healthy and affordable food.

That’s easy to say – but much more complex to achieve! As a starting point I would highlight three areas:

First, the role of food in the agriculture debate; re-instating the F which is all too often missing in Defra

Fieldfare Spring 2019

Second, re-envisaging farmers as the custodians of nature, and agriculture as a restorer not destroyer of the countryside

Third, the creation of a fairer and more rewarding food supply chain, one in particular that attracts more young people into farming.

Farming in Britain is being propelled into a new era with Brexit presenting significant challenges to budgets and standards. But this is not the time to walk away from hard-won standards -indeed they need to be extended and enshrined in legislation.

The Agriculture Bill ought to be the mechanism to bring about far-reaching change. But it lacks both a long term vision and long term funding commitments. It grants ministers many powers, but too few duties. It leads on land management, but divorces that from the wider nexus of food, farming and health - and from the social partnerships with farmers, on which the future needs to build. This is a serious policy failure in the making.

There is no single recipe for the diverse and dynamic communities that make up our country. The beauty

of the British landscape is precisely its diversity. But the food system as a whole must focus on: producing more local healthy food, with far less waste; with fewer or no pesticides; more attention to the welfare of animals; greater transparency about origins and methods of production; a much smaller proportion of meat and dairy in our diets, from more sustainable sources and innovative measures to ensure producers and the wider rural community receive a fair return from the food system.

Farming should be about producing the means for sustainable diets from sustainable food systems. That’s not what we have at present. We need policies which facilitate this.

I welcome the plan for a new food strategy but it should be a foundation stone for farm and land policy, not a ‘bolt-on extra’. I want a thriving UK farming system which serves both food and the environment – consumers and health at the same time.

For a fuller account of Caroline’s view, see: carolinelucas.com/lat-est/a-radical-new-vision-for-brit-ish-agriculture

The food system as a whole must focus on producing more local healthy food, with far less waste.

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In October 2017, Compassion in World Farming hosted a major conference in London (Extinction and Livestock: moving to a flourishing food system for wildlife, farm animals and us).

The proceedings of the conference: Farming, Food and Nature – Respecting Animals, People and the Environment were published at the end of 2018 and comprise an authoritative overview of the compelling need to change our food system.

It has become increasingly apparent that the fate of our planet is bound to the choices we make as individuals.

The way we produce our food is inextricably linked to how our wildlife fares on farmland. But the food we produce and consume also takes a toll on people’s health.

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Gove, has promised a new National Food Strategy once we are outside the EU.

Henry Dimbleby, Defra’s lead Non-Executive Director, has been tasked with preparing the strategy, which will build on the Agriculture Bill, the Environment Bill, the Fisheries Bill, and the Childhood Obesity Plan to

For example, the choices we make (as consumers) about the food we choose to eat has a direct impact on the way land is used across the world.

Livestock (meat) production is having a profound impact on people and nature. Where land is farmed intensively to maximise food production, precious little space for nature may remain. Although even in high yield areas some species can thrive if the right management is in place.

In contrast, as in the case of High Nature Value Farming, whilst the farming system (eg mixed cattle and sheep grazing) may be by default, more in harmony with the

nature of the challenge of moving to a food system which delivers for people and wildlife.

As recent reports have also made clear, the added challenge of ensuring that our food system is reducing its climate foot print is also crucial. The Strategy will need to be bold and address the drivers which promote both unsustainable production and consumption.

For more information,contact Lucy Bjorck: lucy.bjorck@rspb.org.uk

environment, the farming operation is often reliant on support payments.

The idea of consumers choosing to ‘eat less but better’ meat and dairy presents a challenge and an opportunity to HNV farmers. As a society we need to work together to ensure we pay a fairer price both for the agricultural and environmental products of the farming operation.

For more information,contact Pat Thompson: pat.thompson@rspb.org.uk

create an overarching, integrated food strategy for government.

Gove has stated that his intention is to ensure that our food system delivers healthy and affordable food for all people; restores and enhances the environment for the next generation; is robust in the face of future challenges and is built upon a resilient and sustainable agriculture sector.

We applaud this ambition and hope that the strategy will draw on the Square Meal report that we published in 2016 with a number of partners and which highlights the interconnected

Eating less, but better

Planning for a better food future

HNV farming can provide both agricultural products and environmental benefits.

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Fieldfare Spring 201812

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Smart business models deliver for wildlife and the bottom line

Here, and on any farm, the time and money spent on conservation habitats can be maximised by knowing both where your valuable areas are for cropping, and where your most valuable areas are for wildlife.

At Hope Farm, 10% of our croppable land is used for conservation. Some may feel that is such a large area that we waste potential opportunities to grow crops and make more money.

However, on every farm there are awkward or less-profitable areas. It is in these places where a farmer could lose out on money by not using an agri-environment scheme to their benefit.

One field at Hope Farm is a particularly good example. It is narrow and difficult for large machinery. It is also over-shaded by a neighbouring wood, which gives crops fewer hours of sunlight and makes it slower for the soil to dry out. This small field is also next to a pond, and a well-established set of hedges, so a relatively biodiverse area of farmland. This field was one of the first areas that we dedicated to conservation – for both wildlife benefit and financial reasons.

One hectare of wheat is expensive to manage, but our most profitable crop. However, this field only made us £68 once we divided up the profits between us and our contractor. Since,

we have put the field to an AB9 option, costing us around £430 to manage whilst being paid £640 per hectare.

On many areas of the farm it is not so easy to decide where it is best to grow crops for harvest, where we should manage for conservation purposes and which to leave for conservation. But when you are £100 better-off per hectare whilst providing an important food resource for farmland birds over winter, it’s a no-brainer.

For more informationcontact Georgina Bray: georgina.bray@rspb.org.uk

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ContactsIf you have any comments about Fieldfare and the topics discussed in this issue, if you’d like to change how you hear from us (email or by post) or if you no longer wish to receive this publication, please email: agriculturepolicy@rspb.org.uk For more information about your data protection rights please visit: rspb.org.uk/privacypolicy.

The RSPB is a member of BirdLife International, a partnership of conservation organisations working to give nature a home around the world.

The RSPB, UK Headquarters, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL. Tel: 01767 680551.RSPB Scotland, 2 Lochside View, Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh, EH12 9DH. Tel: 0131 317 4100.RSPB Northern Ireland Headquarters, Belvoir Park Forest, Belfast, BT8 7QT. Tel: 028 9049 1547.RSPB Wales Headquarters, Castlebridge 3, 5–19 Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff CF11 9AB. Tel: 029 2035 3000.

rspb.org.ukThe RSPB is a registered charity in England and Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654. 283-1066-18-19

The RSPB is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home.

Front cover: sunset over cereal field by Nigel Wallace (shutterstock.com)

Harvesting the barley at RSPB Hope Farm.

At RSPB Hope Farm it has always been the aim to keep the farm business profitable whilst providing rich habitats for farmland wildlife.